coolspear

As I've said before, I don't/won't investigate any LEs as reported by Better Exceptions. Much as I respect TwistedMexi, Better Exceptions mostly guesses. It is far from accurate. It's not just myself who refuses to investigate Better Exceptions LE reports. Other modders do not either. Turbodriver to name one. Turbodriver is inundated with many LE reports to investigate, due to his very popular mods - Wicked Whims and such - and like myself he has discovered Better Exceptions LE reports will send you round the bend trying to investigate what's wrong. More often than not nothing is wrong with the mod it highlights. Just guessing because it IS a mod. That's not good enough. I won't investigate such LE reports. Save my sanity.

Whatever parameters TM has set his Better Exceptions mod up to look for, I think he needs to better explain it on his Patreon page. Because it will certainly highlight many more mods than will ever get reported by MC. He might like to know these extra details, but most who use Better Exceptions have been previously conditioned by using MC first. Where MC will report a true LE due to a true problem, your first instinct with Better Exceptions is to think it does the same thing MC does and that a genuine problem exists with the mods it reports. That is far from the case and TM needs to better teach people exactly what his mod is doing and why it nominates so many mods. He knows what he's looking for specifically in his incessant reports. Most other users do not and take it at face value there is always a genuine problem with whatever it highlights. And it highlights a lot.

The difference why I don't get LE reports from these mods and you do. You use Better Exceptions mod, while I rely on the more accurate MCCC regarding genuine LE reports for genuine problems. Not interested in what has the potential to cause LEs though never actually does. That'd drive you crazy.

As I do not use those mods I have no idea what files they have.

At a guess I'd say the calorie mod might, as calorie data is on the food object XML files I use. It depends on which files the creator of calorie mod has used. If it's a pure script mod then it will probably be fine to use both. If it's a tuning mod, then it may very well use the same food object XML files as the mod here so it will conflict.

If you have the time, can you do some tests on the garden mods you mention. Specifically what interaction(s) throws an LE.

Because I use that all the time, massively the other day in a new sim home, to kick start a whole garden of every plant and flower form nothing to everything, mature and in full bloom with all produce on plants. I did not get a single LE during all that gardening work with the sim. I never get LEs with that mod, or I'd have looked into it before now.

If you do spot the specific interaction causing it, just write it in the gardening mod's own thread. (These are LEs as reported by MC? Not the Better Exceptions mod? If it's the latter I won't be looking into those "randomly guessed LE reports," so please confirm this when making a specific report.)

The vampire one, again I'd need specifics. I was doing a bit of work in that region just yesterday. I was going to each vamp home to make sure all teen vamps are sun-proof. As I'd hate to see them coming to my new Teen Hangout venue and burning up in the daylight. So while jumping to all the homes and playing the teen vamps for a while to make them each sun-proof, I had no LEs at all. So I'd need to know more regarding when you get LEs. Once you identify exactly when, please report it in the mod's own thread so I can investigate further.

To summarise, if the vamp "drama_scheduler" is being reported as faulty, and the phone calls are still happening in your game - of which they too are all "drama_scheduler" files - then that's more than a coincidence that you are experiencing issues with this specific (modded) file type and I am not seeing any such issues. Could be due a mod conflict, or perhaps Maxis did mess about with the drama_scheduler files in the 1.62 patch, either way not something I can fix until I patch, which as I've said may be some time, if ever.

As a test, put the vamp and phone mods in the Overrides Folder. (Please tell me you have one.) See if they work properly, permanently thereafter. Then at least you'll know it's due to a mod conflict regarding the drama_scheduler files being used in another mod you have. 

I've seen that with the ping pong too. It has the auto simpicker xml necessary for two sims to do it themselves, and they do tend to do it at awkward times, close to point of abuse.

But I think this is part of a larger problem I've been seeing lately. When a sim is already engaged doing something, whether chosen autonomously or commanded by player, you may have noticed a second interaction pops up in their queue and they stop what they are doing to go start something else. This should not be happening, especially when in engaged in an interaction commanded by player. Finish what you're told to do, don't change your own mind halfway through and go do something else instead. That's a no-no.

It's not particularly rife, (yet) otherwise the player community will be up in arms at Maxis to make it stop. But it is creeping in more and more.

But before I even start putting the blame on Maxis and take to griping about it, I will need to check my Quicker Sim Autonomy mods to see if that could be the cause of sims doing this annoying "impatient autonomy" thing. If any mods are going to do it, that would be the one.

But even so, yes, the ping pong table will probably need an On/Off switch added. I agree.      

Glad to hear it's cleared up. Thanks for coming back to report it's working as it should.

The multi-language thing just might have been the reason. But in my head I could only imagine the blank tooltip info box for non-English players for this type of glitch - (Me being forgetful to add a tooltip text string to all languages.) The main shower options not being available is just so odd? The inner-workings of cyberspace causality is a grand mystery, for sure. The big universe and the little universe, they're just not the same thing at all. Not even accidently.   

In such cases it's not that the current mod is broken, but more likely due to the fact Maxis have added a bunch of new files with new interactions to this type of thing that I've yet to sort out and add to the mod.

So keep using the original, (Traditionally Maxis has no need to alter old files of this type as they are unique to their ye olde purpose.) and wait for me to catch up with the new Uni files for blithering idiots to find new reasons to call sims every five minutes, and add them to the mod.

I've not as yet had any new annoying phone contacts. But I'm sure as soon as I do finally send a sim to Uni and start all the new scholarly activities there, then blithering idiots are destined to get on their phones and call relentlessly for every last little Uni activity my sim does. Of that I have no doubt - especially since you've also just confirmed my fears of that unfolding.

Also keep in mind I have not patched to 1.62, and probably will not for a good while. So if it is something due to 1.62 patch coding rubbing up the wrong way with my mods, I will not be able to fix it until I patch - if I patch. Although I can't imagine that being the reason as 1.62 is a relatively small patch that did not touch these types of files. But with the upcoming knitting patch and the eco EP patch and its horror story Meat Cabinet, issues with my mods will be out of my hands as I will still not be patching for that offensively recycled game code and all the insultingly rehashed shit it covers.

Minor personal update May 9th 2020

A small amendment to include a missing text sting for non-English languages. If playing game in a non-English language and placing mouse cursor over showers, baths and toilets while controlling a Robot or Hologram sim, you may have seen a small, blank Tooltip info box pop up. That little box should have a message to say "Not for Robots or Holograms." They are not supposed to use these items, so I banned them and added the message. I forgot to make the message appear in all languages. That is now fixed. (Though it will be in English for all languages.)

Also, due to recently adding several object XMLs for showers, toilets and baths to this mod to stop Robots and Holograms outright using these objects, this mod may now conflict with other mods that edit showers, baths or toilet XMLs where it did not conflict before. A tuning mod such as "Pee in Shower" will probably now conflict.

Also this mod is only guaranteed up to 1.61, so if you are on a higher patch you might run into issues with showers, baths and/or toilets that I cannot currently do anything about.   

I have not come across such an issue in my game. The various command options for normal shower or mood showers are always present. I'll pay more attention to it according to your description regarding hygiene levels, to fully confirm. But with recent play sessions, - and these hologram mods forever in my game - I'm always able to command sims to shower as and when the need arises.

Though there is one small matter that may have a bearing. That I recently did add shower, bathing and toilet XMLs to this mod to prevent holograms using these objects. (Also beds in another mod relating to sleeping/napping.) And after your report I have just noticed a mild discrepancy in the string tables for all other languages except English. That a Maxis Tooltip line, if hovering mouse curser over shower while controlling a robot, that says "Not for Robots" now reads. "Not for Robots or Holograms" if also controlling a hologram. But if you play in English that would not be an issue for you, only foreign languages, and it would just be a blank Tooltip info box for foreign languages. Given that most folks who use this mod don't even play with "controlled holograms," as part of the family - I certainly never do, the whole point of them was to avoid having many family members - I don't know why I even made that text change. Not needed really. As such I'll be resetting the text back to original Maxis for all language translations - "Not for Robots" - and will reupload the mod. (Though I doubt this alone could be the cause of what you've reported. But you never know...)

Edit - I'll be keeping that text string. Turns out it was not a Maxis original thing I'd edited, but a ban and new text string I made myself from scratch to stop robots and holograms using objects they should not. Maxis may think it funny in their Nelson Muntz way if a servo autonomously gets into shower and frazzles itself to death. I do not. My sims make their robots a little smarter than that, methinks. I was going to ban holograms anyway, so included robots in the ban while I was about it.

Another thing to consider is if Maxis changed those shower XMLs in 1.62, and you are also on 1.62, then that may be the cause of it. They did break shower/bath combo units with missing options at start of year and the fix was typically not a good fix, with reports on MTS of normal showers missing options after fix. (Sounds familiar?) So if they have had another stab at a fix in 1.62 then there's nothing I can do about it as I will not be patching beyond 1.61 for some time. Knitting and heavily recycled coding of careers, objects and interactions for a lacklustre, upcoming Eco EP, no thanks. Not interested. Could be I'm never patching again. Not if TS4 is going to whimper out its final, flaccid days with this uninspired re-re-rehashing of stuff, that should have rightly been included in older packs and not held back so as to be nickled-and-dimed into standalone new EPs while dragging out TS4 long beyond it shelf life for this singularly greedy purpose. Apt that knitting is next as they try to pull the wool over our eyes with this lazy-ass, shameless Eco EP stunt.

Look for the re-upload later today or tomorrow, hopefully. I'm currently busy testing/tweaking a new Teen Hangout Venue mod. Fed up of my teens having bugger all to do and have given up on trusting Maxis to do anything about it. If they did it would probably be to rehash new Mood Swings for them.

Edit - Now uploaded.

For the Jungle region, I do have a separate mod that removes all street walkbys. The mod found in the same World Sim Control thread where the Jungle Bar is. (For the Forest region I think walkbys are blocked in the main WSC Empty Streets mod.)

So if not using those other mods while using this mod, the walkbys should still occur in both Jungle and Forest regions.

Though I cannot say for sure which sim types will be chosen by default filter mechanism to spawn walkby sims on streets. I think it more likely it will not be residential neighbours seen as walkbys but sims roped in from the four corners of the accessible regions, even newly generated sims created just for the walkby scenario. More likely to see Bella Goth from the other side of the globe than anyone from the house next door. Hence one of the reasons I ban walkbys and have no intention of ever working on walkby filter XMLs to secure only true neighbours are on streets. (As I did for the one and only time for Vampire region.)

There is the unique Jungle Native trait which you can give all those sims who you place in Jungle homes and it may go some way to help push them as street walkbys. Though I'm only guessing as I don't now if the walkby filters take this unique trait into account when choosing random sims. I use that trait to ensure only locals attend my Jungle Bar venue, but I don't know if Maxis went to same effort for street walkbys for Jungle. Maybe. (No such trait for Forest region so it will be the random Bella Goths of the world as walkbys rather than local neighbours.)

@AmberLokisdotter - The karaoke might be one of the ones not possible I mentioned, given it already has the generic On/Off switches like all electronics, for karaoke regarding the duration sims sing songs to switch on/off music tracks and singing animations. I will take a look, but if it has the same switches used then it won't be possible. The Podium is already one you can download here. (5th mod down the list.)

The massage chair and table mods can be found in my WSC Spa Venue mods, though there are more files I need to add to it as some massage types are missing from On/Off feature.

@pylon - The kitchen stuff is something I'll do. I already have traditional no auto mods for small kitchen appliances, but I do plan to give them On/Off Auto functionality if permissible.

Don't know about the toddler slide. Pretty sure that involves two sims, grownup playing with toddler? Haven't used it much but it's usually a grownup helping toddler to slide. As such, autonomous two-sim object activities are very rare to see, almost never, probably because they can be very annoying if too many of them were autonomous. Sims always dragging other sims away from what they are doing, nothing ever getting done, Maxis tend not to push that type of scenario too often, because the few times they do allow it (toddlers often asking adult to watch TV with them) someone quickly makes a no auto mod to stop it. What I'm getting at is they are usually no auto most of the time anyway, for good reason, so I won't be upsetting the apple cart. I've never seen a toddler slide being used autonomously either, due to the two-sim scenario.

Rockets are non autonomous as default, specifically for residential game play. They can be made autonomous for community lots, as seen at city festivals and I've used this feature to have Astronaut NPCs at the Science Labs for the Active Scientist Career. But as a feature that could be randomly autonomous at home with played sims I would not recommend it. Given sims will fly away often, sometimes for ages, sometimes they will keep wearing astronaut outfit after they come home which can be annoying, and worst thing, you would be besieged with multipart chance card scenarios regarding their space missions, often breaking your concentration and your patience. (From my knowing descriptions you might be able to guess that I have once already made rockets autonomous at home for played sims, to know of these highly annoying results.) Would not recommend it to be anything other than permanently, old school non autonomous - as it currently is.

Unless you actually want rockets switched off for City Festivals? Given Festival Rockets use debug rocket objects and debug rocket xml files - not same as buyable rockets - and that I have banned all City Festivals from my own game, then I probably will not be tampering with that element of (debug) rockets.

Again, anything regarding photography is another of those two-sim interaction scenarios I will probably not be editing. Because sims just may never use them autonomously even if I make them autonomous and give it high attractions factors, they may still just ignore it. Especially if there is no "auto simpicker" files attached. Very important files for auto two-sim activities. And if non are present for the two-sim activity, (which is often the case, hence what I said above) they'll never do it autonomously ever.  Though I could make new auto simpicker xmls for it, depends if interaction will be an over-abused, royal pain it the butt, once made dual autonomous. Sims randomly dragging other sims away from stuff usually is. You command a sim to do one thing, then another sim uses their ESP Telepathy from the other side of the lot to say no, stop doing that, come over here and do this with me now. You'll end up hating that very much. Very, very much. So goes Auto Simpickers, best used sparingly if not at all.

Firepits, bonfires and  campfires I'm currently testing with this feature, as well as others features. Tents, yep, I can look into it.

The amount of work involved making suitable recipe files for such an object's interactions, probably not. 

Don't know, I've never tried that scenario. If you try it and it works out - no pun intended - then please drop a line back here. It'd be nice to know.

The paintings on the sketchpad are unique files, not shared with easels. This mod will need an update to include the pad figure painting files from DU.

Just thought I'd drop a helpful line in here. This mod set is still perfectly good as of 1.61. Maxis very, very rarely touch the XML files this mod edits. Almost a wonder why they made and put this in the game to begin with, considering they ignore it's maintenance so much. Especially given the awful default autonomy time they originally gave to sims - Which is broken and officially recognised as such by EA Help. (Hence modders like me fucking with it at all, and why I mention this at all. They've officially fucking recognised the issue, so what the fuck?!!!)

I'm always stoked that about two-and-half, three years ago, they (Maxis) officially recognised the simulation lag in the game was a "thing," finally acknowledged it, that they too have experienced it, and will work on finding a solution. Good luck with that - three years later and no solution. At least you recognised and admitted it exists - mighty big of you, because three years later you can be held to account - which is why most game devs originally shirk from admitting such things. So love Maxis for "Officially" recognising it. Sure. But be very baffled with them why patch after patch they do fuck all about fixing it. Admitting to a crime is one thing. Redemption to cleanse the crime, that's a whole other field, and would be nice to (finally) see Maxis do some Redemtion here.

Until then, these mods are still good for 1.61. Because Maxis ain't fucking touched them. HA! Hallelujah when they fucking do!!!! Come the day... Until then, these mods will still do the best they can for you and me. I've still got them in my game!

Do not land helicopters here!

Rimmer (Episode - Holoship)  - "Although for me, the H does not stand for Hologram. It stands for Hideous, Halfwit, Horrendous Failure..." 

Today it represents Happy! Cheers Amber! Thank you.

Yes, keep all the StrangerVille stuff if your sim moves home. Especially the security door entry card. You can - and may need to - use that again and again. I completed that Mother Plant quest when my main sim lived in Windenburg. Then Island living was released, so I built a beach paradise home for him and moved him there. Then Realm of Magic, so I made him the best Spellcaster as well as being the best Scientist. (Best of both worlds. Science and magic usually in opposition, though he is the one that melds them both.) I also heavily reworked the StrangerVille Secret Labs in between all that. All the while keeping his original StrangerVille stuff in his personal storage boxes.

In my game, to date he is still the only one I bothered doing the StrangerVille story with - much as I love the mother plant and use her in many things, such as FutureSim Labs for Scientist career. So he is still the only one that can go straight to visit her in Secret Labs with his security door card. So yep, hold onto it.

I've made mods where you can dress your sims in the Hazmat Suit anytime you want. But that security door card you have to work for, so keep it safe once you get it for future visits to see the Mother Plant at Secret Labs.  (Even for my reworked Alien Party at Secret Labs mod & build, you're still going to need that security key card to get to see Mama personally.)

I love StrangerVille town. Especially when it is racked with the red storms. In my game I've taken to that point, riddled with red storms and plagued with infected sims. That's where I'm keeping it. Don't want to fix it or cure the town. Then it'll be just like everywhere else. Where's the fun in that???? I love going there when it's so edgy and moody and full of jerky-walking zombies. Brilliant!

Just remember the laws of ownership. It's best to think of it that it's the lot that owns the storage boxes, not the sims. As long as the sim lives on that lot, they have unrestricted access to a storage box's contents. If the sim moves home, and the storage box remains at the old address, they no longer have access to its contents. If they take box with them to new lot in their personal inventory, then yeah, the box now belongs to the new lot they live on, so they continue to have access. Though I'd still strongly recommend emptying all storage boxes and keep stuff loose in personal inventory till you get to new address, then put it back in a storage box when on the other side of that moving event. The ownership system is quite good, but not always perfect. Sometimes sims still lose ownership, even if the stuff is in their inventory all the while as they move address. You'll know when they've lost ownership because if you Live Drag it and the sell box in personal inventory does not highlight, then the game has decreed the stuff no longer belongs to that sim/lot/household - even though they still carry it and use it in their inventory. Can and does happen. Not a perfect system. Though still pretty good in the most part, for a Maxis system. Just count yourself lucky you can still Live Drag the stuff, (Out of sim inventory.) even though it's no longer officially the sim's (Lot's) property.

@AmberLokisdotter Brilliant! Thank you so much for doing this. I'm going to be giving it to my Arnold Rimmer sim right away. Cheers my fellow Dwarfer. That was fast work making the second version not so stretched. Looks great. No hairline in the game (Or CC hair) would be low enough to clip now. Fantastic. You're a proper smeg head!!!!

Sounds like it was due to pre-uni bed assigning hangover from the new coding change. I'm still getting one or two minor hiccups if I go to a sim house I haven't played in a long while and have to re-assign beds again. It can happen that when newer coding is introduced to change an object's behaviour, it's just simply better to place a new version of the object to prevent hangover glitches. Seen more so when mods are edited than when Maxis changes code on their XMLs, but still a possibility either way, as you've seen.

Glad you got it sorted. 

Update April 2020 - A few months back, (10 months ago now actually) after nearly five years of playing the game at slower global speed via MC, I tried switching back to default global time speed. Just to see. It lasted about a day and a half before I could stand it no longer and needed to return to slower speed. Though during that time, I was - luckily you might say - taking my sim to Jungle to some archaeology stuff. And that's when I was being constantly hit with the same glitch folks have been reporting here pretty much since this mod was released. Sim getting stuck. The mod is set too fast for default global time speed to cope. I'll wager all those getting the stuck sim are playing at default time speed or close to it? Yes? Well when I breifly did, my sim got stuck almost every time too. After I went back to my prefered slower global time, my sims have not got stuck once. It seems the issue has been identified, and when I get the time I will make a second version of the mod, slowing it down a bit to match the quicker time flow of default global time speed.

We'll get there in the end, eh?

This mod reworks the crafting elements regarding the Robotics Table from Discover University EP

Crafting is now five times faster! Due to the fact I use slow time in my world via MC, I found crafting stuff on the Robotics Table to be mind-bogglingly slow. And seeing I've altered the speeds of most others, such as crafting and upgrading items on the Robot Constructor from Get To Work EP, then this stuff needed speeding up too. Geez, two sims in their home labs, one making AND upgrading a SimRay with all seven upgrades, the other sim making a Quad Copter toy - needing no extra upgrades, and the race was unmatched, David vs Goliath, could have done three or four SimRays by the time the Quad Copter was finished. No more of that! Fives times faster treatment for all Robotics Table craftables, - even a Servo - does the job.

All the craftable items hidden behind careers or uni club memberships are now unlocked. You want to make a pair of swanky Computer Glasses as a unique Christmas present for all your kids? Then go ahead and make them, the kids'll love 'em, no bans or barring because you're not in a certain Engineering career or in a Uni Robotics Club. None of that silliness. My game, my way, my sim kids get the goodies come Christmas morn. My sim is chief Scientist at FutureSim Labs and founding member of Storage Galorage Ltd for crying out loud. If he can't make this shit because he's not an Engineer, then no-one can! Well, now everyone can.

No ingredients required to make anything. Yep, I know, I too appreciate the fact that ingredients are a matter of fact in the real world, and I also do like the idea of ingredients being needed in game. But as sure as eggs are eggs, it doesn't take long before I find the whole ingredient element behind crafting a blooming hindrance to gameplay and so I edit it all out. Forever dwelling on the notion that ingredients are a good thing, Maxis was right to include them, but all the while so much happier that I'm not being blooming-well hindered by their necessity after they are modded out from play. Does that make any sense to anyone? It does to me. Ingredients - lovely though you are - be gone!

(Maybe, just maybe, one day I'll take a deeper look into it, and try to wrangle the same deal that occurs with fridges, ovens and cooking. That if "suggested" ingredients are not available, then price of cooking meal goes up, but you can still actually cook the meal sans ingredients. Best of both worlds. One day, maybe... Begs the question why the heck didn't Maxis do this across the board for all crafting interactions anyway??? It's their blooming idea! Where's the consistency? Or do they just like giving modders something to do?) 

Also a little bonus, the Computer Chip and Mechanism crafting parts have now been given a monetary value. 10 shiny simoleons a piece. Such that, if using my mod to allow Live Drag on these very items, you can now quickly sell off any of these things that accumulate in your sim's inventory and get a little cash bunce for the effort. Better than a kick in the butt, any day of the week. (Any pre-existing crafting parts will not pick up the change. Only newly generated ones.)

 

cool1_crafting_RoboticsQuickerCrafting_CareerStuffUnlocked_NoIngredients.rar  -  New for April 2020

 

Thanks and Credit: Simsasylum, Sims4Studio, our sims community, EA Maxis

I don't know how many times I've mentioned that half those Motive Auto Solve interactions are cockamamie, and if I could just find the frikken file that governs them I would tidy it up, as Maxis have been lacking on that for years.

Half of them do not work correctly, or push your sim to do totally unrelated interactions to solve low motives. It has got nothing to do with any mod out there that has motive adjusting properties or features. Unless that creator has actually found the mystery Auto Solve xml and is using it in their mod. I can assure you I have not - yet.

Sure, if you have Island Living, and you tell your normal human sim to go find a method to clean up their low hygiene, don't they go take a frikken drink of water like a mermaid would. Hygiene and hydrate still have their wires crossed and Maxis in no rush to fix.  Tell your sim to find a method to sleep, and half the time they'll immediately get a push to go pick up a toddler instead. Need I say more how broke that system is and needs fixing.

In your case, is there anything blocking access to the bed? Large footprint of nearby object touching the entry part of the bed? An innocent-looking wall-hanging, wall-sculpture, wall- cupboard with a large footprint blocking entry part of bed? Bed has been assigned to another sim? Locked bedroom door? Has sim ever used that bed before? Is it shared with another sim whom they do not know very well, or is still a stranger? The bed claiming system was changed with Uni and if using outdated bed mods this bed ignoring you are seeing could be the result. There is also a "familiarity system" within the game regarding the frequency at which sims use or totally ignore many objects, and sims are less likely to use something they have never used before. More often than not you have to be the one to push them to first use something, then they will do it autonomously thereafter.

"Stand and waves around" sounds very much like a Route Fail animation to me. (Route Fail is a thing in this game, and when sims do it they are trying to tell you about a blockage.)  Bed is blocked, has to be. Check their thought bubble or speech bubble, they are trying to tell you something about the blocked bed. Have you tried clicking on bed directly to command to sleep, only to see same arm waving animation?

I regularly use that Energy Auto Solve at bedtime, (I did when playing the family yesterday.) and unless the game has got a random bee up its butt about picking up toddlers first, then it always sends each sim of 8 to their correct beds. Much helped by this mod to stop unwanted napping. 

As you may have noticed, I have recently been adding an On/Off Autonomy switch to objects. It's a new-ish way to handle autonomy allowance per object, as the ye olde format of global no autonomy is not very helpful in many situations. The old global way could certainly help keep your sanity by stopping sims over-doing things while at home, but also kills the autonomy during other important scenarios for NPC workers while at community venues or on Active Career lots. Not good.

The On/Off feature gives a player and their sims much more freedom to turn off autonomy per object, so you can control many scenarios much better. Such as stop your sims playing the keyboard in the kitchen/dining room for a while, because AKKK!!! ENOUGH ALREADY!!! But leave the keyboard in the child's bedroom On as they can still practice and you don't hear that one as often to annoy you as much, so just let them get on with it. Your game, your way.

Plus it's just a simple On/Off switch right there on the object, no more need for rigmaroles and shenanigans adding and/or removing autonomy settings or putting in/taking out No Auto mods the ye olde way.

In this thread I will be adding the majority of objects, as it would be too much to make individual threads for each one, especially if my only reason to mod the object is to give it an On/Off switch. Though there are a few other mods in different threads that add an On/Off Autonomy switch to objects as well as other features. Such as the Musical Instruments mods, Dance Floors found in Fame mods, No wash dishes in bathroom sinks, and one or two others here and there.

Also some objects here have also been given a higher autonomy push when they are On, as sims tend to ignore them otherwise.

This list will grow over time, but please make a suggestion for any objects you would like to see this On/Off feature added to. Just take note that I will not be changing the generic wording of "On" and "Off" to anything more specific. With many objects to cover, it won't be getting more fancy than what is already available by default in the game. Plus Maxis have already done the necessary language translations. "On" and "Off" will do just fine for the majority of objects they are added to, as I can't see how that could ever become confusing on objects where there was no such switches beforehand. "Why is there an On/Off switch on this Massage Table again? I forgot. I'm confused." Really?

If you are okay with using apps such as Sims 4 Studio to change text strings, it is not advisable to alter the On/Off text of these mods. To alter it to read something like "On Piano," "Off Piano," because you want that extra bit of finessing per object, will only be shooting yourself in the foot, as all other objects of these mods - and many Maxis default objects that also have it - will pick up that same change. I'm sure you'll like that even less than the default, boring On/Off text that both Maxis and myself think is good enough for the purposes they were designed for - that are easily incorporated into these mods as is.

Speaking of "picking up the change," it may be that for some objects you will have to replace them to see the new On/Off Autonomy switches. I've not come across any myself yet, so far they all correctly display the new change, but it can happen sometimes.

 

Major Update - December 2022 - Mod totally reworked! I decided to make my own XMLs for the switching on and off process, so it no longer relies on the default Maxis "Turn Off" "Turn On" interaction XMLs. They were very limiting, and also could not be used on many electrical items, such as TVs, Stereos, Karaoke Machines, as Maxis is already using those interactions on them. Making my own switches frees me up to change a lot more objects, and also allows me to be a little more descriptive in the interaction text, saying more than Turn On, Turn Off.

There is the new Alpha Mod, which holds the template coding for the switches. Always keep that mod installed. Then there are all the individual object mods I'll keep adding to the growing list. You can remove any of them you don't fancy. Though many, such as Painting Easels, have other elements added as well you might like, not just on/off switches. All are now found in the one folder below.

 

 

Most of the things in the pics above have been turned off for that particular sim household. The thumbs up, thumbs down icon also a helpful indicator of what is off and what is on.

There are still one or two older mods with the older format of Turn Off, Turn On. Musical Instruments and Bubble Blowers if I recall. I will get round to updating everything with the new switching options. And there will be plenty more new ones added to this set. Things like TVs, Stereos, Karaoke Machines, now that I know my switches will not conflict with Maxis switches.

A few objects in this set will be in a state of Turned Off as default. Things that can get annoying if they start as default as Turned On. Skating Rinks, The Snowy Escape Ski Slopes and Rock Climbing start as Off. So that not every sim in the area gets free skiis and climbing gear in inventory just because they are there. Or sims aren't trying to leave the vacation rental home to going miles away skiing every bloody five minutes. Just "Turn On Interactions" if you want sims to use them. Next time you load up the area they will be turned off.

Update June 2023 - Nothing patch related needed. Just more objects given the annoyance-avoiding, sanity-saving On/Off treatment. The list ever grows. Yay! Also as a heads up, there are a few older mods in the General Mods section that were designed to make some objects more autonomous. Seeing as the same things are in here, but also with an On/Off switch when you're tired of sims overusing them, I will be removing those older mods today. They're probably outdated or broken anyway, so I'll just get rid of them as they're all here with better features.

Update August 2024 - It's been a little over a year since I last updated the mods here. So here's the latest versions. First of note is the Sinks On/Off part of the mod has gone. Maxis gave us in-game features since Horse Ranch to decide what type of sinks should be in bathrooms and kitchens, so that element of the mods is redundant, extinct and now removed. Some older ones tweaked, and some newer ones added. Such as my old Hot Tubs mod. That was a favorite back in the day, sims using it better, longer, less hokey-cokey in-and-out with it, using more often, and now with the On/Off treatment. Yay! Please keep in mind that I don't dare patch to latest Lovestruck shambles and its umpteen hot fixes.. I'm waiting till it's safe to patch, so some of these might not be compatible if you have risked patching. Most certainly the last one in this set Command to Teleport might need patch updating, it usually does with big patches. That teleport mod used to be in another thread, but I did a big rework on it a while back to click on ground to turn On/Off a lot of clutter features, barely used interactions, and auto bike riding, so it got moved to this set because of the On/Off features. So keep in mind if Maxis has added any new ways to walk (walkstyles) with Lovestruck, then the terrain files in the Command to Teleport mod will need updating, and I cannot put an accurate timeline on when that will happen. Only when Maxis tidy up their act, their shit and the game, will I risk patching.

Update September 2024 - Just a quick fix for the On/Off Gym Treadmills, nothing else. That's the only mod in this set that needs to be replaced. I missed including a base game treadmill - (The "Zen" one that unlocks via completing career goals if playing default game rules.) I could have sworn I fixed that about seven months ago, but found in game yesterday that, nope, I still haven't included it. It should now have all options available again.    

Update September (Again) 2024 - These updates are in line with the older Love Stuck patch and the recent 1.109 patch.

All the gym equipment mods needed tweaks, including the rock climbing treadmill. The hot tub is also updated. (Maxis, it better not be an erroneous mistake, and you better not blooming-well revert those stereo music files back to their original hot tub music files in a future patch!)

Also the Bars On/Off mod. I neglected to mention that newer mod in previous update notes, so I'll take the opportunity to do so now, especially as it also needed a 1.109/Love Struck update. The On Off selecting allows or disallows sims to tend the bars. Very useful in either residential or community scenarios when you want to herd the visitors around like sheep. When mixologist workers come to the venue, they will go to the bar that is switched On, (On by default) so you can move the visitors around to different areas. Very handy when having parties at home, that starts as an outdoor pool party, (using my clothing crystal mod to make them all wear swimsuits.) then come the evening you want to herd the guests and staff into the dining room, (again using the clothing crystal mod to make them all wear Formal.) then come the wee small hours want to herd them again to the basement disco. (Again with clothing crystal to make them all wear Party outfits.) When also used with my updated drinks trays with On Off features for even more party guest "cattle herding," that's bound to have you making some of the best, aptly-dressed-sims, party-everywhere-in-the-mansion videos ever! Like a blooming Hollywood movie, eh. Not just Maxis who can do it in their videos. Now you can too! "Party Rock is in the house tonight.." All over the house actually. Cometh the hour, shuffle them along to the next stage of the ongoing party. "Every day I'm shuffling..."

Oh, and I added much more variety to the drinks sims order at the bars autonomously. Also teens can auto order from bars. I did this in much older, outdated mods in another thread years ago. So it makes a comeback in this mod where it's more aptly suited. And finally, where it certainly helps if the mixologist's skills and traits have them more capable of making the best quality drinks, the bars themselves have also been tweaked to enhance the quality of drinks made on them, should the mixologist's talents be a little sub par. Though if the mixologist's skills and traits are anywhere in between godawful and non-existent, then I don't think the bar itself can pull off miracles of top quality drinks all by its lonesome. 

Update December 2024 - A few things needed updating for Life & Death patch stuff. Mostly the On Off Bars, with new coding to do with Death working a bar or something, I dunno. I do need to add a few new ghost possessing interaction nonsense to things like gym objects, but it's not object-breaking nor LE causing if they don't have it yet. I'll get round to it eventually, but as I can't stand that kind of ghost crap I'm in no immediate rush. A few new things added, the Lovestruck group card game thing, where if game box is placed on a table every blooming sim in the house rushes to play it autonomously. Sorely needed an On/Off switch, now it has it. And one of the "biggies" I finally got round to doing, giving televisions an On/Off switch. Works a treat! See a separate folder inside rar for Televisions. The two mods inside are needed. One for better sitting while watching TV, and the other mod for removing the stupid Maxis glitch for the Instant Upgrade interaction to always reappear and be active again after game load. (Maxis haven't fixed that in ten years! It causes sims to get stuck doing the Instant Upgrade again as it's already completed and should not become active again.) As it turns out, all the files I needed to do On/Off on televisions are already in these two mods. So now two mods become three mods. That was handy. Lastly, the Command Sim To Teleport mod also had a tweak. I added new coding, but also removed all things to do with bike riding. Now bike riding has nothing to do with the mod whatsoever. It was getting too finicky and would never be 100 percent perfect in all annoying bike situations because Maxis really did a number on them, so I scrapped the lot and got rid of a headache from my mod. Although bikes will still be a headache in the game, but that's on Maxis.

Update March 2025 - Uploading the updated Command to Teleport mod from this set. Seeing as this particular mod has an important Terrain XML in it that governs and allows all the walkstlyes on land, you're gonna need that one fixed pronto. A few others in the set also need updates, but only of a minor nature so I'll get to fixing them later. 

Update May 2025 - Hi all. I've been messing with these again. It is a big project and I'm forever tinkering, so I'd better upload latest versions. A good bit of tidying for existing mods in this set. Quite a few, but to name any specifically the easels needing a touch up for latest coding, with a couple of painting annoyances finally cleared up. Firstly the Figure painting is now non autonomous because I'm sick of sims painting that autonomously so, so often. You wanna see figure painting, - actually figure charcoal sketching - you gotta tell them. Also since Cats & Dogs, the devs of that pack introduced new paintings, and to make us all realize this, they put way too high a chance multiplier on sims painting those few cats and dogs images. So I'm sick of seeing those more often, too. We get it Maxis, you gave us new paintings seven years ago! Yip-de-frikken-do! The obnoxiously high multiplier has finally been removed on those, so they're now the same random chance as any other painting, at long last.

TVs got tweaked too. (I'm really enjoying the On/Off for TVs. Not only because sometimes you just want TVs Off for a while, but because it allows for having dedicated gaming console only if a TV is Off while a game console is placed near to it. Good for kid's rooms or man caves. And also for placing in gyms, so while Off - and no gaming console in sight - the only available choices are the two special TV workout interactions. Great stuff.)

Also a few new additions. The Karaoke machines at long last added with the On Off functions. Hallelujah!

And of all things, the Loungers, the pool floating ones, the poolside ones and the Beach Towels. Because you may have noticed since last patch, these things are now autonomous for sunbathing, and sims are rushing to it. I think this is yet another sign the next EP will be Vacations/Hotels, and Maxis making the Loungers and Beach Towels ready for guests to auto use. However, typical Maxis, it's a bit ham-fisted. Sims are now sunbathing after midnight, yep, (Not moonbathing from Life & Death, but actual sunbathing at 2am FFS! Maybe the new Vacation/Hotels world will be 24/7 tropical clear sunny skies, like the way Snowy Escape is 24/7 snow.) And sunbathing while fully dressed! Not funny, Maxis. Anywho, I've made it all On Off. Also made sunbathing in everyday clothing (Actually "current clothing.") permanently No Auto.  Swimwear and Nude are autonomous when Loungers are switched On, but I've tweaked the Nude interaction so that sims will frikken-well dress themselves - in hot weather outfit, or swimwear when leaving floating lounger - once they've finished nude sunbathing. Because Maxis leave them naked otherwise and, well, that's just a bit silly, and downright lazy of Maxis. (Then again, Maxis may leave it that way because of their nudist lot trait and/or to work alongside WW nudity settings and whatever. So then my mod forcing them to dress afterwards is the bad guy. All down to play style preference, I guess. Obviously I don't mind nudity here and there, but I don't play full-on nudists colonies either. Garden of Eden pre-Apple incident, not for me. I wouldn't spend so many hours in Cas dressing them otherwise!) Also, for those brave sims who chose to sunbathe nude, they also get the buff for having sunscreen applied, so they don't get their dangly bits and pointy bits and baby-making bits and baby-feeding bits all sunburnt. That's too harsh and merciless, even for a game. Maxis want to give all our summer sims skin cancer by making sunbathing autonomous but not auto applying sunscreen. If sim chooses swimwear, you'll have to give them sunscreen yourself, because I don't want to totally kill off the "funny ha, ha" sunburn chances, so Maxis can be happy they managed to give some sims skin cancer, you know, for a laugh.  Good old Maxis.

And a final word on all loungers, I utterly hate auto napping in all iterations of the Sims franchise, so there is no auto napping on these objects when they are switched On. (You wanna sleep when visiting my Vacation Hotel? Rent a room, pal. No free rides.)  

I can't remember all the other mods I've tweaked for this set, but there were a good few. And always more to do with this set, so I'll keep plugging on with it. As ever, if you notice anything weird about objects of this set that I missed in testing, please don't hesitate to report it.       

 

 

Download

Interactions OnOff.rar - Update May 2025

 

Thanks and Credit: Simsasylum, Sims4Studio, our sims community, EA Maxis

Whoops, I forgot to also mention the new On/Off Autonomy switch added to all dance floors. If you updated this mod the other day, and have seen a mysterious On/Off switch on all the dance floors, don't panic. I put it there intentionally. I'll be adding that On/Off Autonomy switch to a great many things. 

Yes, as highlighted halfway through first paragraph. "You can also save them to Library, move them to new world, and they keep their special All-In-One worker status."

If you are as annoyed as I am over the silly way Maxis gave our sims free reign to ride their bikes roughshod over damn-well everything, every chance they get, then you'll probably be happy with any amount of mods that try to bring some sanity to the careless, thoughtless silliness of Maxis and their brain farts about bike riding. As long as they're not the ones playing the game, eh?

I'm currently working on other mods to try and bring more tolerable sanity levels to sims and general autonomous bike riding. (Not proving easy BTW.) But there are also some special scenarios Maxis threw in on top that push sims to ride bikes beyond the general usage. The majority of which I have no qualms with. Mostly because they are Street Walkbys (Ridebys) scenarios which I've banned from almost all regions in my game via the "WSC Empty Streets" mod - so I won't see them anyway. And I'm quite happy to leave the bike riding in place for campus areas and the Uni World Region, as I imagine Maxis purpose built it all together for that sort of thing, so it probably all works well in that specific region. (Haven't actually played it yet to see if there is any truth to that - as far as my tolerance of it will hold, that is.)

But I have to draw the line at club gatherings, and all invited club members (Except the club leader, your sim.) being forced, FORCED, to turn up on a free bike and making a total balls of the event. Trying to ride the bike even if only two or three feet to the building's entrance. Trying to keep riding bikes while indoors. Abandoning bikes here, there and everywhere and getting yet another free one to do same. A total and utter fucking shambles and a wreckage of a club gathering unfolds. And, Maxis, right back at you, FUCK YOU, TOO! Stay the fuck out of my game, you're killing it.

This mod removes them getting any free bikes and they'll turn up as they should, on foot and ready to make the gathering fun, not bike-hell-fubar.

 

cool1_sim_ClubGatheringNoArriveOnFreeBike.rar -  New for April 2020

 

For patch version compatibility status, please see most recent Patch News thread for the TS4 General Mods section.

 

XML Resources Used:

03B33DDF!00000000!11151D76E95FC3B5.situations.situation_job.Tuning.xml

Any other mods using these files will conflict.

 

Thanks and Credit: Simsasylum, Sims4Studio, our sims community, EA Maxis